Hobbies.

Everyone has got to have a hobby, right?

Recently I’ve developed an interest for two things, photography, and RC helicopters.

First up, Photography.

I’m going to Chicago pretty soon in mid-March to visit my aunt, and at the same time help her out with a small project which has a bit of coding and design involved. During my one month stay there, we’ve planned a trip to Peru, Machu Picchu! It’s an amazing place for those of you who don’t know yet. Here’s a picture of it.

Pretty damn amazing huh?

I thought that such a magnificent place shall not escape the lenses of my dad’s Nikon D90! So I spent the past few days messing around with the DSLR and read up online guides on photography. I liked it. It made me feel good when I take a photo that defines a moment. Here are two of the photos I’ve taken.

I know these photos cannot compare to the ones we see on Flickr and Tumblr by professional photographers. In fact, they are really far off from being even decent. But it is the constant “If others can do it, why can’t I?” thought that fuels my curiosity for photography. I want to be good just like the others, I want to take photos that people can relate to. I want to create pictures that matters.This is probably what I feel every time I snap a shot. Just like coding, every line I write, I want to make it matter. I want people to look at it and say “Wow that’s a beautiful piece of code”. So much similarities in two totally different activities.

Next up, my RC helicopter.

This might sound really child-like, but there’s a certain kick to flying this little thing. My dad saw a couple of videos on YouTube and the amazing things this small, whizzing gadget can do. Soon enough, he got one for himself. But as time went by, he slowly lost interest in it. You need to invest lots of time to learn how to fly it properly, and my dad’s a pretty busy man, I think.

So I took over!

It was pretty difficult at first, getting the left/right hand coordination correct. Even doing a simple hover over a certain spot takes months to perfect. I still cannot do it properly, but I’m sure with practice comes results. Maybe I’ll upload a few videos of what I can do with this small little thing in time to come.

The kick that I’m talking about. You feel in control, satisfied when the helicopter flies the way you want it to. I can really relate to this feeling because in coding, it is somewhat similar. You write code, the machines obey. “Thy bidding master.” To me, nothing beats the feeling of being in control of a certain situation. I don’t particularly see this as a strength, nor a flaw. Just a small characteristic of Bili.

That’s pretty much it.

Both these hobbies somehow relate to coding. Maybe that’s why I was hooked on to both of them so quickly! Hopefully these two hobbies would last, and take some steam off my head during tough times. (Considering NUS Utown has a really great grass patch to fly my copter next time… And also to attract certain amount of judgement)